Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoir of Academician Boris Chertok, translated from the original Russian, fills that gap.

Chertok began his career as an electrician in 1930 at an aviation factory near Moscow. Thirty years later, he was deputy to the founding figure of the Soviet space program, the mysterious "Chief Designer" Sergey Korolev. Chertok's sixty-year-long career and the many successes and failures of the Soviet space program constitute the core of his memoirs, Rockets and People. In these writings, spread over four volumes (volumes two through four are forthcoming), Academician Chertok not only describes and remembers, but also elicits and extracts profound insights from an epic story about a society's quest to explore the cosmos.

This book was edited by Asif Siddiqi, an expert on Soviet space history, and Gen. Tom Stafford contributed a foreword touching upon his significant work with the Russians on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Overall, this book is an engaging read while also contributing much new material to the literature about the Soviet space program.

Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoir of Academician Boris Chertok, translated from the original Russian, fills that gap. In Volume 1 of Rockets and People, Chertok described his early life as an aeronautical engineer and his adventures as a member of the Soviet team that searched postwar, occupied Germany for the remnants of the Nazi rocket program.

In Volume 2, Chertok takes up the story after his return to the Soviet Union in 1946, when Stalin ordered the foundation of the postwar missile program at an old artillery factory northeast of Moscow. Chertok gives an unprecedented view into the early days of the Soviet missile program. With a keen talent for combining technical and human interests, Chertok writes of the origins and creation of the Baykonur Cosmodrome in a remote desert region of Kazakhstan.

He devotes a substantial portion of Volume 2 to describing the launch of the first Sputnik satellite and the early lunar and interplanetary probes designed under legendary Chief Designer Sergey Korolev in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He ends with a detailed description of the famous R-16 catastrophe known as the "Nedelin disaster," which killed scores of engineers during preparations for a missile launch in 1960.

Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoirs of Academician Boris Chertok, who worked under the legendary Sergey Korolev, translated from the original Russian, fill that gap. In Volume 1 of Rockets and People, Chertok described his early life as an aeronautical engineer and his adventures as a member of the Soviet team that searched postwar, occupied Germany for the remnants of the Nazi rocket program. Volume 2 takes up the story with the development of the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and ends with the launch of Sputnik and the early moon probes.

In Volume 3, Chertok recollects the great successes of, and continues the fascinating narrative of the Soviet space program in the 1960s, arguably the peak of the effort. Chertok devotes a significant portion of the volume to the early years of Soviet human spaceflight from 1961 to 1967, including the launch of the world’s first space voyager Yuri Gagarin and gripping accounts of two of the most tragic episodes of the Soviet space program, the death of Korolev and the flight and death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov during the very first piloted Soyuz flight in 1967. Furthermore, Chertok provides a radically unique perspective on the Cuban Missile Crisis, from the point of view of those who would have been responsible for unleashing nuclear Armageddon in 1962 had Kennedy and Khrushchev not been able to agree on a stalemate. He concludes focusing on the relationship between the space program and the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which would serve as great interest to historians of Soviet spaceflight.

This book also may be purchased from the NASA Information Center, NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street SW, Room 1H23, Washington, DC 20546-0001, 202-358-0000 or the Government Printing Office (866-512-1800 or ContactCenter@gpo.gov).

Jay Chladek

Anyone know if Volume 3 covers Chelomei's Proton booster as used in the Zond and Almaz/Salyut programs? For that matter, is there any coverage of Vladimir Chelomei's bureau at all in them?

Lasv3

All I know is the Soviet manned lunar programme will be covered fully in Vol. 4 which may contain the Proton/Zond details.

E2M Lem Man

I received my copy of Vol. 2 and 3 today and at first glance they appear to be a well done and complete look behind the 'Iron Curtain'. I can't wait to read more!

Jay Gallentine

Just received the book today. It looks thick and fantastic.

Lasv3

Just finishing this excellent book, the last 20 pages will be read tonight.

Detailed account on both military and civilian projects (ICBMs, spy satellites and missile-defense projects, communication satellites, Lunas, Vostoks, Voschods, Soyuzes, some appetizer on Vol.4 - Zond 4 flight) with a lot of background information, organizational structures (I have to say I'm completely lost in this tens, maybe hundreds (?) construction bureaus - to supervise all of this must have been a nightmare).

The book is really great and I'm already looking forward to the Vol. 4 with the Soviet Lunar program. According to the NASA History Office the Vol. 4 is due "sometime in 2010."

garymilgrom

Note part III is available as a PDF at the NASA site listed above (Memoirs).

minipci

Anybody know when volume 4 is due to appear?

Lasv3

"It will be published sometimes this year we hope" - fresh info (today) from NASA HQ History Program Office. The project is delayed as are all their other book projects - according to the same source.

Thanks for the update. I'm hoping it can be released soon. It will be great to learn more about the Soviet lunar program.

Lasv3

Value added is the insider and direct participant look, which makes this series so attractive.

And yes, let's hope it comes out soon, it would be nice if the History Office manages to release it before the Boris Chertok's one hundred's birthday, hopefully having this great man still with us

hinkler

Any update on Volume 4?

Robert Pearlman

Stephen Garber sent out a notice today from the NASA History Office expressing their sorrow over Chertok's passing. The e-mail included the following:

The fourth and final volume, subtitled The Moon Race, will be published early next year.

astroborg

This is bittersweet. Truly a sad day, this week regarding his passing.

On Vol. IV, many thanks to Dr. Asif Siddiqi, Series Editor for his continuing work with Academician Chertok on making these translations for us into English.

Robert Pearlman

According to @NASAHistory on Twitter:

The final volume of Rockets and People was shipped by the printer yesterday. Copies available soon from GPO bookstore.

Robert Pearlman

NASA History Office announcement:

Rockets and People: The Moon Race (Volume IV)

by Boris ChertokDr. Asif Siddiqi, Series Editor

(Washington, D.C.: NASA SP-2011-4110), pp. 663 + xliv, hardcover.

Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoirs of Academician Boris Chertok, who worked under the legendary Sergey Korolev, translated from the original Russian, fill that gap.

In this last volume of his four-volume set of memoirs, the famous Russian spacecraft designer Boris Chertok, who worked under the legendary Sergey Korolev, continues his fascinating narrative on the history of the Soviet space program, this time covering 1968 to 1974, the peak years of the Soviet human lunar program. Chertok devotes a significant portion of the volume to the origins and development of the N-1 rocket.

One of the values of this volume is Chertok's lengthy description of the origins of the Soviet space station program, which began with the Salyut space stations in the early 1970s and concluded with the multimodule Mir complex in the 1980s.

Perhaps the most poignant chapters here are the ones on the tragic Soyuz-11 mission when cosmonauts Dobrovolskiy, Volkov, and Patsayev were killed on reentry.

Chertok concludes the book with a lengthy description of the end of the N-1 program and the birth of the Energiya-Buran program under the leadership of Valentin Glushko. His account provides a fascinating inside look at the political, technological, and personal conflicts at a time when the Soviet space program was at its zenith.

Wow. I had a chance to read the chapter about the creation of Salyut (primarily to confirm my research in my own book). It is excellent reading for any fan of this kind of stuff as you can see how things are similar and how they are different.

Considering how stripped to the bare bones they got with the N1 program based on Chertok's speech to members of the Central Committee when they were pitching the case for building Salyut, I am honestly surprised they didn't end up killing anybody with that thing assuming the test launches had gotten off the ground. You thought astronauts flying to the moon had big ones, any cosmonaut assigned the task of landing on the moon would really have to have a death wish to fly that thing.

Spacewalk to LM because the weight limit won't support an internal pressurized docking collar? Check. No backup systems? Check. Landing alone? Check. And only 20 seconds of hover time with the engines before having to set down or abort? Check. Doing it all after a potentially exhausting spacewalk over to the LM? Check.

And then having to get out, walk, plant a flag, collect samples and hope like heck you didn't fall over and get stuck on the ground, being unable to get back on your feet and knowing you don't have a partner on the surface to pick you up. Check.

dbaker

As a fitting tribute to Boris Chertok, and in recognition of a great life, I am very pleased to say that eminent space historian Frank H. Winter wrote an extended obituary for the March issue of Spaceflight, the magazine of the British Interplanetary Society.

Robert Pearlman

NASA release

NASA Completes Publication of Boris Chertok's Rockets and People Memoir Series

NASA's History Program Office has released the fourth volume of the English translation of Russian space pioneer Boris Chertok's highly acclaimed memoirs, Rockets and People: The Moon Race.

Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoirs of academician Chertok, who worked under the legendary Sergey Korolev, fill that gap.

Covering the dramatic years of the Soviet human space program from 1968-1974, this fourth volume addresses the development of the mammoth N-1 booster – the Soviet competitor to the U.S. Saturn V moon rocket. Chertok also discusses the origins of the Soviet space station program, from Salyut to Mir. In addition, he examines the tragic Soyuz 11 mission and provides an overview of the birth of the Energiya-Buran space shuttle program. His account provides a fascinating inside look at the political, technological, and personal conflicts at a time when the Soviet space program was at its zenith.

From 2001 until his death in December 2011 at age 99, Chertok worked with translators and series editor professor Asif Siddiqi, who is associate professor of history at Fordham University, N.Y., and a leading expert on the Soviet space program. Chertok re-organized the material, and made substantial additions and corrections, with the goal of making the NASA-published English language edition the definitive version of his memoirs. Siddiqi annotated all four volumes to make the complexities of the Soviet space program and the intricacies of Russian culture clear to an English-speaking audience.

"This book is not merely the culmination of a decade of work by the author and editorial team, it is a fascinating and highly readable insight into the Soviet space program and the all too human people who brought us the space race," said NASA Chief Historian Bill Barry.